Judge denies request for injunction from Framingham head shop

A Superior Court judge has denied a Framingham head shop’s request for a preliminary injunction to get back merchandise police seized in July.

Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff

A Superior Court judge has denied a Framingham head shop’s request for a preliminary injunction to get back merchandise police seized in July.

However, Judge Douglas H. Wilkins, in his expansive written decision, said it appears Framingham Police "overstepped legal bounds" as they searched for drug paraphernalia in Terry Wilson’s Rte. 9 store.

Detectives may have illegally taken some items from The Grateful Head, such as a "plastic gorilla," T-shirts and business cards for a local medical marijuana doctor’s office that didn’t fall within the scope of a search warrant, Wilkins wrote.

The judge, who heard arguments last week from attorneys for Wilson and the town, underlined in his 10-page ruling that he was denying the injunction "at this time."

He left it up to Wilson to take her request to Framingham District Court, which issued Detective Matt Gutwill the search warrant and has control over the items.

"I’m very happy with the decision, and I think that’s what we’ll do next," Wilson’s attorney Joshua Krefetz said Thursday.

The town opposed the injunction request, arguing the confiscated items are evidence of crimes.

In addition to water bongs, "grinders" and other drug paraphernalia, police on July 25 found a "small amount" of pot and packets of suspected synthetic marijuana in Wilson’s shop, Gutwill said in an affidavit.

Police have applied for criminal complaints to charge Wilson, Christopher Vaccarello and David Grigorakos with the sale or possession with intent to sell drug paraphernalia.

The three are due in Framingham District Court Oct. 22 for a magistrate hearing.

Police also found an unsecure gun in Grigorakos’ vehicle during the bust and are seeking to charge him with improper storage of a firearm, according to Gutwill’s affidavit.

Wilson filed the injunction request in Middlesex Superior Court last month along with a complaint over, as it states, the "unlawful harassment and closure" of her shop.

She claims police seized and have held onto more than $20,000 worth of merchandise.

Wilson says she received the town’s approvals and opened the store at 280 Worcester Road in early May with the help of Vaccarello (her fiancé) and Grigorakos, their friend.

Gutwill, a federal Task Force Officer in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force in Boston, said in his affidavit he regularly inspects businesses in town for evidence that drug paraphernalia is being sold.

Police sought the warrant to search Wilson’s shop after two confidential informants succeeded in buying glass water pipes they told store employees they would use to smoke marijuana, court documents state.

In his decision, Wilkins referred to the ongoing public debate about marijuana laws and discussed "the problem in drawing the line" when it comes to dual-purpose items such as water pipes that could be used both legally and as drug paraphernalia.

"Discerning the seller’s primary intended use of an item is not an easy task and, of course, may require evidence beyond the allegedly unlawful drug paraphernalia themselves," Wilkins wrote.

"Hippie"-type items such as T-shirts or stickers - some of the items police seized – aren’t drug paraphernalia and "can hardly be viewed" as proving criminal intent, he wrote.

Wilson "is likely to show" that police’s seizure of goods from her shop "was overly broad in at least some respects," Wilkins wrote.

Town Counsel Chris Petrini declined to comment on the decision until after he read it.

Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-626-4416 or dameden@wickedlocal.com.

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